Cooling with Electrocaloric Polymers

Projektinformationen

COOLPOL

ID Finanzhilfevereinbarung: 101161087

DOI

10.3030/101161087

EK-Unterschriftsdatum 1 Juli 2024

Startdatum 1 September 2024

Enddatum 31 August 2028

Finanziert unter

• The European Innovation Council (EIC)

Gesamtkosten

€ 3 781 325,00

EU-Beitrag

€ 3 781 325,00

Koordiniert durch

LUXEMBOURG INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Luxembourg

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - COOLPOL (Cooling with Electrocaloric Polymers)

Berichtszeitraum: 2024-09-01 bis 2025-08-31

Zusammenfassung vom Kontext und den Gesamtzielen des Projekts

We recently showed that ceramic-based electrocaloric regenerators are very interesting for cooling applications. However, the potential of polymer-based electrocaloric regenerators is more than one order of magnitude larger, thanks to a much larger voltage-driven entropy change. This is what we want to investigate in this project, namely polymer-based electrocaloric coolers.
Hence, thanks to the recent progress made in electrocaloric polymers (ARKEMA), in electrocaloric heat exchangers (LIST) and in electronic modules for electrocaloric cooling (USTUTT), combined with the scale up capabilities of this consortium (KEMET), the goal of this project is to make an air conditioning system with a temperature span of 15 K, a low temperature below 12°C, 1 kW-cooling power and 60 %-efficiency. This requires a multidisciplinary approach combining 1) materials science (development of efficient electrocaloric materials and associated cooling modules), 2) thermodynamics (heat exchange and efficient cycles) and 3) electrical engineering (cooling control and energy recycling to increase efficiency).
To reach this final goal, three key objectives (KO) have been defined in this project.
Key objective 1 (KO1) – Development of electrocaloric polymers-based cooling modules (multilayer capacitors) with a temperature variation of 5 K at 12°C.
Key objective 2 (KO2) – Fabrication of regenerative heat exchangers with electrocaloric polymer cooling modules reaching a maximum temperature span of 30 K and a maximum cooling power density of 5000 W kg-1.
Key objective 3 (KO3) – Reaching high efficiency beyond 60 % of Carnot by recycling electric energy.

Arbeit, die ab Beginn des Projekts bis zum Ende des durch den Bericht erfassten Berichtszeitraums geleistet wurde, und die wichtigsten bis dahin erzielten Ergebnisse

This first year has been dedicated to 1) finding the right electrocaloric polymers, 2) consolidating the fabrication process of electrocaloric multilayer capacitors, 3) finding a way to integrate electrocaloric cooling modules in a fluid-based heat exchanger and 4) developing a piece of electronics able to control the electric power applied to the cooling modules.

Fortschritte, die über den aktuellen Stand der Technik hinausgehen und voraussichtliche potenzielle Auswirkungen (einschließlich der bis dato erzielten sozioökonomischen Auswirkungen und weiter gefassten gesellschaftlichen Auswirkungen des Projekts)

During this first year, we consolidated the approach and showed that it is valid and able to provide valuable results that will be further detailed on the second report.